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DH Giveaway: Paint Style
Let’s try this again. My new giveaway for this week is Paint Style, a terrific How-To book from Benjamin Moore.
The book is filled with tips for creating your own finishes and a perfect paint job. If you know someone who’s planning to take the holiday between Christmas and New Years to spruce up the house, this would make a great gift. Maybe it’s you!
The contest runs all week and I’ll announce the winner, chosen at random, on Saturday. I ship to the US and Canada.
To enter, simply leave a comment under any of the Paint Style giveaway posts and give us your paint tip. Or, ask me a painting question and I’ll answer it.
Good luck!
Enter To Win This Christmas Stocking
Yet another giveaway here at the DH. This week, in the spirit of the upcoming Christmas holiday, I’m giving away this handcrafted Christmas stocking, designed and stitched together by me!
All you have to do is leave a comment and you’re entered to win. The contest runs all week and I’ll announce the winner (drawn at random) on Saturday. I ship to the US and Canada.
Imagine this stocking snuggled up by your fire. Santa is sure to fill it with good things.
6 Weeks Of Giveaways! Domino’s Decorating Book
We’ve got only six weeks before Christmas and just five before the first night of Hanukkah arrives on December 11th. Better get those lists started! Make your first stop Design Hole. I’ve rustled up a pile of fantastic gifts and I’m giving them away – starting today.
First up is Domino’s Book of Decorating. This giveaway runs all week through Friday. I’ll announce the winner, chosen at random, on Saturday.
We were all so sad to see such a great magazine shut its doors. This book offers the best of their decorating how-to’s.
To enter, simply leave a comment under any of the Domino giveaway posts. I’d like to know what interior design subject you’d like to know more about. Is it color palettes? How to choose different fabric patterns that work together? More DIY projects? I’d love to know what you’re interested in.
Let me know your thoughts – long or short. The giveaway is open to anyone living in the contiguous United States and Canada. To avoid paying duty, I’ll ship it as a gift, because that’s what it is!
Car Interiors Giveaway – We Have A Winner!
I meant to announce the winner of the book giveaway yesterday but got swamped with work. So without further ado, the winner of Automotive Custom Interiors is:
Alison M!
Alison plans to give this to her husband for Christmas. So don’t tell him. Thanks for entering.
Everyone enjoy your Saturday. I’ll be back in full-tilt mode on Monday. Then off to New York where I’ll be reporting on various things from YankeeLand.
Enter Social Designer’s Colored Pencil Contest
Who doesn’t need extra money? Social Designer runs endless contests with good prizes – mostly cash and mostly about $2,000. Now that I’ve got dollar signs spinning in your eyes, this contest isn’t a cash prize. But it worth $660. Enough with the teasing, the prize is a set of professional colored pencils worth $660 (as I said).
Your mission: Design a graphic for an e-card that greets the recipient with colorful cheer. Your design could be an illustration of some kind or a photo you took but it must be original. The winning e-card design will be available on the 500 Colored Pencils website, where you’ll be able to mail to any of your contacts.
For each e-card sent Social Designer will donate 10 cents (up to $1000) to The Humane Society http://www.hsus.org/. The theme of the card should be generic and not reference specific occasions or holidays so it can be tailored by the user with their own personal message to the recipient.
This is a Facebook contest, something new to Social Designer. To learn more, follow this link.
Last day to enter the Wallpaper Crafty Contest!
Welcome back! Hope you all had a great weekend. I spent my time shopping for home accessories. I’m finishing up a bedroom project. Oh, and then there was dinner with friends at Mr. Paul’s Chophouse, an old restaurant that still makes Caesar Salad and Cherries Jubilee Flambe tableside. Hope your weekend was fun as well.
Candy designed this beauty
Now to the contest. This is the last day to enter for a chance to win 20 square feet of wallpaper from Alluminare. You design it yourself! Just visit the site, design your favorite style and post the link in the comments. Let me know what your idea is for using the wallpaper in a craft project.
You can read all the details here.
I’ll announce the winner tomorrow morning. There’s no time to waste, so enter today.
Alluminare Craft Contest
What would you do with 20 square feet of wallpaper? Come up with your best handmade plan and you could win a gift certificate to make your creation a reality.
Alluminare, the sponsor of this contest, is the place to go to create your own, one-of-a-kind wallpaper. Choose your pattern, colors and sizes. Have fun! Then, scoot back here and let me know what you chose (copy the URL – it’s the easiest way to share) and let me know how you’d put it to good use.
Stumped for ideas? Take some of mine:
- Cover a twin-sized headboard with a cheerful pattern for your child’s room.
- Create Instant Art with a bold pattern cut in two or three pieces. Cover canvases or canvas frames with the paper and hang them on either side of a fireplace. Or side-by-side in a dining room.
- Line envelopes, make greeting cards
- Decoupage a waste basket and cover a mirror frame to create a groovy a powder room
For all the fun details, follow this link to my previous post. Don’t wait! The contest ends this Monday. The winner will be drawn at random. And did I mention the Design Hole T shirt? Oooh!
Alluminare Custom Wallpaper Giveaway
What would you do with 20 square feet of custom, design-it-yourself wallpaper? Would you cover the back of a bookcase to add some zip to a room? Create one-of-a-kind picture frames, storage boxes or planters?
Here’s your chance to put your creativity to the test and turn your idea into reality. The prize? A gift certificate from Alluminare good towards that 20 square feet of custom wallpaper. Plus a Design Hole T-shirt. Yay!
Only three simple steps to enter!
1. Come up with your best idea for a handmade item or crafty application using a 4 foot x 5 foot piece of wallpaper. You can cut it, tear it, soak it – whatever. Just be creative.
2. Scoot over to Alluminare, and design your favorite wallpaper. They’ve got lots of patterns, up to 4 colors on one design, and 4 sizes to choose from. Copy the URL with your design.
3. Hop back here and leave your idea under “comments”, along with the URL link showing your design.
The winning idea will be announced on Tuesday morning, September 29th.
The contest is open to everyone living in the contiguous United States, plus Hawaii, as long as you haven’t won a prize in the last 6 months. Even Martha Stewart can enter.
Dorm Décor Contest Fails to Pass
Well folks, it happens. Sometimes the genius behind Design Hole’s contests (that would be me) gets it really wrong. This is, unfortunately, one of those times. It’s also the only time. And I hope it stays that way.
It seems that my contest challenging everyone to design a dorm room with a budget of $100 or less has brought little interest. Therefore, I’m withdrawing it as of today. I’d like to thank my sponsors for helping me out with some great prizes. They are: FLOR, Always Mod, Alluminare & Benjamin Moore.
I think the lack of enthusiasm is mostly due to bad timing. I should have run this during the summer when everyone was thinking about going back to school and outfitting their space.
Whatever the reason, I still think this contest is a great idea and I’m planning on revisiting it again next year. What do you think? I’d like to ask and encourage everyone to help me out by giving me your thoughts and ideas on how to improve upon the concept. If you’re interested in participating in next year’s contest, let me know.
Enter to Win Great Prizes in the Dorm Room Décor Contest
This is a reminder that it’s still not too late to enter my Dorm Room Décor Contest! You have until the end of the month to show off your decorating and budgeting skills. Can you decorate a room for $100 or less? You know you can.
The top three designs will win super-fantastic prizes from FLOR, Always Mod, Alluminare, and Benjamin Moore. For more details on prizes (some shown here), follow this link, and this one. Then start designing!
And, you don’t have to do one in “real life”. Email me and I’ll send you a floor plan (only 13′ x 10′) of a virtual room complete with photos.
Anyone who wants to enter should email me for the rules at designholeonline at gmail dot com. They’re very simple – I promise.
Need some ideas? Here are a few.
- Dress up a wall using decals. You can make your own easily.
- Buy stuff from the hardware store, like yard sticks and washers , to create your own mural.
- Drag something from over your Mom’s house and paint it.
- Buy a white sheet at K-Mart and tie dye it.
- Make some iron-on decals and design your own matching curtains and bedspread made from old sheets.
Have fun! But don’t forget to email me for the rules. There are lots of ideas there, too.
Dorm Room Décor Contest – Enter Now!
In case you haven’t heard, I’m running a really great contest all this month. Can you decorate a dorm room for $100 or less? You know you can! Email me via the Contact button, or at designholeonline at gmail dot com. And I’ll send you all the details.
More Prizes Added!
The prizes are worth entering for alone! The Grand Prize winner will receive a 5′ x 7′ rug of their choice from FLOR plus a $150 gift certificate from Alluminare. Design wallpaper, a pillow or a pendant light to go with your new rug.
Follow this link to read my announcement post. And start designing!
Can You Decorate a Dorm Room with Only $100?
Announcing the Design Hole Dorm Room Décor Challenge
Can you decorate a dorm room for $100 or less? Of course you can! All it takes is ingenuity, imagination and your own creativity. Decorate your dorm, real or virtual, and you could win fabulous prizes.
There will be three big winners and two honorable mentions. The Grand Prize winner will receive a gift certificate for a 5′ x 7′ rug of your choice from FLOR. Second prize is two gorgeous Marimekko Unikko Pillows from Always Mod. Third prize is desk accessories from Always Mod. And, all five finalists win Paint Style, a terrific decorating idea book from Benjamin Moore, plus super-fab tee shirts. I’m still adding prizes, so stay tuned!
Grand Prize is a 5′ x 7′ carpet from FLOR
Have fun! Spent the money any way you want. Buy some saris to make curtains, or to turn your room into an exotic, tented pleasure palace. Stitch old sweaters together for a wild bedspread. Create a cool platform bed with painted wooden palettes. Like the jungle? Fill the room with plants, fairy lights and animal prints.
How you spent your money is up to you. You can work by yourself, or in a team. What really counts is your imagination, creativity and ingenuity.
High-End Judges
I’ve assembled a fantastic panel of judges: George Simons Jr, architect, product designer and principal partner at nbbj; Joe Posch, style guru and owner of two Detroit contemporary home stores, Mezzanine and Hugh; Leon Fitzpatrick, product designer who developed green products for Motorola and is currently a founding partner at VEGA$BROKE. Finally, Misterarthur and I round out the team.
Fabulous prizes from Always Mod
Entering is Easy
The contest runs the entire month of September. So you’ve got lots of time to come up with something great. All you have to do is design your room (again, you can do one virtually), and take lots of photos. Before and after shots are great! But I’m also looking for photos that tell a story. How did you make it all happen? Did your husband sew up the curtains? Take a shot of him at the machine. Did you find a cool lamp in a dumpster? Photo op! And don’t forget to take shots of your receipts.
If you’d like to create a virtual design, I’ll send you a floor plan and photos of a real life dorm room from Goucher College. Go shopping and take photos of that lamp you’d use (plus the price tag). Put a design board together. Create something in Photoshop. Hand draw your vision. Build a model!
All five finalists win Paint Style!
Email me for the official rules
To get started, email me for a copy of the official rules at: designholeonline at gmail dot com. The virtual floor plan and photos are included, Plus, you’ll find more details on what the judges will be looking for. Send your entry via email, or snail mail it to me. The address is in the package. The deadline is September 30th. Winners will be announced on Monday, October 12th. I’ll be posting some of the entries throughout the month to keep everyone inspired.
The story behind the contest
Back in the day, Emily (my college roommate) and I used to challenge each other to see which of us could come up with the best home cooked meal for only a dollar. This was useful, since we had no money. Winning choices were: hamburger with roll, a box of frozen onions rings and an apple; box of macaroni & cheese, salad made with tomato and a cucumber; and a can of chick peas made into hummus with celery for dipping. We saved so much we could afford an entire bag of cookies.
Emily and I were very proud with what we came up with and still laugh about it today. That fond memory, coupled with the fact that today we’re all trying to make our dollars go a little farther, was my inspiration for what I hope will become an annual event.
After all, you don’t need a U-Haul and a credit card to trick out a great room – just some imagination and a hundred bucks.